While Amazon Fire tablets utilize an Android-based operating system, they do not include Google Play, which limits the number of available apps to those offered by Amazon. Amazon heavily customized the Android operating system, eventually renaming the operating system Fire OS. While Android is an open-source operating system, Fire OS is a closed-source, proprietary operating system only available on Amazon devices.

The Fire HD was succeeded by several tablets with screen sizes including 7 inches, 8 inches and 10 inches – each having different specifications. The initial 7-inch version of the Fire HD was released Sept. 14, 2012 in the United States. While newer iterations of this tablet mostly increased in size, a smaller 6-inch version was released Oct. 2, 2014.